Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ review

Wired rating

Wired

Tired

Odd shape won't suit everyone

Price

£300

The original Yoga Tablet 10 came out towards the end of last
year but already it's been beefed up with an HD screen, more
powerful processor and a better camera. Is that enough to bring it
close to perfect?

Chassis and screen
In a packed tablet market, it helps to stand out, and the Yoga
Tablet certainly does, with that large cylindrical bulge which
houses the outsize 9000mAh battery, and also makes for a useful
one-hand grip. It also adds to the weight of course, and it's
noticeably heavier than an iPad Air for example, but at 626g, it's
not going to put anyone's back out. If you feel the need, you could
also use it with Lenovo's Bluetooth keyboard that also clips to it
as a screen cover (it'll cost you another £90 though).

The Yoga's other most distinguishing feature is the kick stand
which rotates around the battery cylinder. It sits snugly flush
with the casing when not in use, and pulls out so you can stand it
up for viewing. It's sturdy, but perhaps a little too sturdy --
there's no fingernail hook to latch on to for pulling it out, so
using it isn't quite as easy as it should be. And while it's good
that you can balance it at virtually any angle, it's easily toppled
over if you're prodding the touch screen a lot.

The 10.1in screen has jumped from an okay resolution of 1280x800
pixels to a better-than-full-HD 1920x1200. It's clearly sharper,
and the contrast seems higher too. Viewing angles are good, useful
if you're sharing, and colours are vivid without appearing
saturated. And while the vision's good the sound's pretty decent
too, with twin speakers facing forward -- always better for sound
quality rather than rear or side-firing models.

Processor and software
The quad-core 1.6GHz processor is now backed by 2GB RAM instead of
1GB and proved reasonably nippy in use, if not especially
outstanding. Our AnTuTu benchmark test delivered a score of 19,398,
which puts it well behind the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro's 34,000+ for
instance. The battery hasn't changed and it's still a good
'un. It'll easily last you through a few days of steady use.

It's running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean which is a little bit behind
the curve, but an upgrade to 4.4 KitKat is promised soon. As usual,
Lenovo has made some minor tweaks to the interface and added a
smattering of bloatware, including SHAREit (file exchange),
SECUREit, SYNNCit, SNAPit (camera) and SEEit (picture viewer).

The original's 5 megapixel camera has been replaced with an 8
magapixel version, but it's still not in an ideal position. The
lens is squeezed in at the end of the cylinder, which works well
enough if you're holding the Yoga in portrait mode, but in
landscape mode it's it's exactly where you would put your hand.
Picture quality has leapt up a few notches though, and while the
autofocus may not be the fastest, and pics may not be the epitome
of sharpness, colours are accurate, there's a reasonable level of
detail and it's transformed from a mediocre snapper into a
perfectly okay one. There's 32GB of memory on board and you
can add another 64GB via microSD card, which slots in behind the
stand.

Conclusion
The Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ boosts the original with some very
worthwhile improvements, including screen, processor and camera.
The styling is still a bit Marmite but if you love it, this one is
well worth a look.